


Relativity

by SonriaCat



Series: Tales from Winter Camp [16]
Category: Earth 2 (TV 1994)
Genre: 100 situations, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-06
Updated: 2017-10-06
Packaged: 2019-02-25 23:30:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13223523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SonriaCat/pseuds/SonriaCat
Summary: Just what is the difference between right and wrong on Planet G889?





	Relativity

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Criminal

“Yale, may I see your arm? I’d like to take a look at your command conditioning module.” 

He frowned, but Devon knew that the electronic components wired into his system wouldn’t let him easily refuse such a request if it came from her. Releasing a contract usually required a trip to the Central Authority office.

The problem was that there was no C.A. office here.

Running her thumb across the sensors to identify herself, she opened the module on his arm and laid a stripped wire across the contacts.

He winced at the sudden arc of electricity. “Devon!”

“I’m sorry,” she said softly. “But it’s the only way I could think of to disable the module.” She began to fit the module cover back into place. “You’re not a criminal. I won’t let you be treated like one anymore, even by accident.”

“So you shorted the module out.” Taking his arm back, he cradled it against his chest. “You might have warned me.”

She felt her face warm, but risked a smile anyway. “I wasn’t sure you’d let me, if I told you first.”

“You said it yourself,” he answered. There was a lingering echo of pain in his voice. “I’m not a criminal. I would have let you.”

The mild guilt she felt at hurting him turned into full-fledged remorse. “Then I’m _really_ sorry.”

“What’s done is done, and I appreciate it. But I think I shall visit Julia for a pain block.”

She watched him go, sighing. That had been an impulse, and now she was realizing it had been poorly executed. She should have taken him to the med-tent and asked for the pain blocker first.

“Stop beating yourself up, Adair,” said Danziger as he sat down beside her. She hadn’t heard him come in. “That was the right thing to do.”

“I just wish I hadn’t had to hurt him to do it. But he’s not a criminal. It needed to be done.”

He looked at her for a long moment. “You do realize he actually still is a criminal, right? He disobeyed direct orders when he let those scientists go.”

“He wasn’t bound to obey unlawful orders! Surely a kill order wasn’t lawful.”

“A kill order? No. But a detain order? Yeah, that would’ve been legit. He wasn’t authorized to just let those folks go.”

“Their crime was purely political.”

He shook his head. “A crime’s a crime. Doesn’t always mean it should be, but that’s the way it is when the citizens decide they don’t like something.”

She considered him. “That doesn’t sound like you have a whole lot of faith in the system.”

“I’m not a citizen.” He shrugged. “Even though I agree with you, I don’t have any say in the matter.”

Now she found herself wincing, as much at his casual tone as the reminder itself. Yale wasn’t the only person on Eden Advance who had suffered from the system. “You have a say in what’s a crime here.”

“Really? Drones’ opinions count? You do realize that’s saying we don’t have to follow Station law? That’s a pretty big jump, Adair.”

She thought about that for a while, during which he took off his tool belt and got up to pour drinks. She took hers with a nod of thanks, but stared over the rim for a minute more. “We’ve already been making our own decisions about right and wrong anyway. We abandoned Julia even though she never broke any laws.”

“But you just did,” he pointed out. “It’s not legal to set a Yale free without getting approval from the Central Authority.”

That hadn’t even occurred to her. “Does that make me a criminal?”

“I already told you I agreed with doing it. I don’t think anyone in camp would disagree. So does that make us _all_ into criminals?”

“No. But we need some sense of right and wrong. I used to think was cut-and-dried, and that our legal system functioned as a guide, but now…” she trailed off.

“Now you’re not so sure,” he finished, not without empathy. “So I guess it seems right and wrong aren’t so cut-and-dried after all, are they? The situation really is relative.” It was an old argument between them, though before, it had always been theoretical. Station Law was draconian sometimes, yes, but not to the point of being oppressive.

Devon made a face at herself, disgusted with that line of thought. She’d just seen ample evidence that the presence or absence of oppression definitely _was_ a relative concept.

“Hey,” he said after a moment. “Don’t stress about this. Even on the Stations, the laws were always changing. They’re just going to need to do that here, too. But we’ll figure it out.”

“Will we?” she asked, meeting his eyes over the rim of her cup.

“We’ve made it this far, haven’t we? Despite the odds being stacked against us?”

“Yeah.” She took another sip of her drink. “I guess we have.”


End file.
